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Revelers chanted \u201cliberty\u201d and draped Venezuelan flags over their shoulders in South Florida on Saturday to celebrate the\u00a0American military attack\u00a0that toppled Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government \u2014 a stunning outcome they had longed for but left them wondering what comes next in their troubled homeland.<\/p>\n
People gathered for a rally in Doral, Florida \u2014 the Miami suburb where President Donald Trump has a golf resort and where roughly half the population is of Venezuelan descent \u2014 as word spread that Venezuela\u2019s president had been captured and flown out of the country.<\/p>\n
Outside the El Arepazo restaurant, a hub of the Venezuelan culture of Doral, one man held a piece of cardboard with \u201cLibertad\u201d scrawled with a black marker. It was a sentiment expressed by other native Venezuelans hoping for a new beginning for their home country as they chanted \u201cLiberty! Liberty! Liberty!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re like everybody \u2014 it\u2019s a combination of feelings, of course,\u201d said Alejandra Arrieta, who came to the U.S. in 1997. \u201cThere\u2019s fears. There\u2019s excitement. There\u2019s so many years that we\u2019ve been waiting for this. Something had to happen in Venezuela. We all need the freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump insisted Saturday that the U.S. government would\u00a0run the country\u00a0at least temporarily and was already doing so. The action marked the culmination of an escalating Trump administration pressure campaign on the oil-rich South American nation as well as weeks of planning that tracked Maduro\u2019s behavioral habits.<\/p>\n
About 8 million people have fled Venezuela since 2014, settling first in neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. After the COVID-19 pandemic, they increasingly set their sights on the United States, walking through the jungle in Colombia and Panama or flying to the U.S. on humanitarian parole with a financial sponsor.<\/p>\n
In Doral, upper-middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs came to invest in property and businesses when socialist Hugo Ch\u00e1vez won the presidency in the late 1990s. They were followed by political opponents and entrepreneurs who set up small businesses. In recent years, more lower-income Venezuelans have come for work in service industries.<\/p>\n
They are doctors, lawyers, beauticians, construction workers and house cleaners. Some are naturalized U.S. citizens or live in the country illegally with U.S.-born children. Others overstay tourist visas, seek asylum or have some form of temporary status.<\/p>\n
Niurka Mel\u00e9ndez, who fled her native Venezuela in 2015, said Saturday she\u2019s hopeful that Maduro\u2019s ouster will improve life in her homeland. Mel\u00e9ndez immigrated to New York City, where she co-founded Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, a group striving to empower the lives of immigrants. She became a steadfast advocate for change in her home country, where she said her countrymen were \u201cfacing a humanitarian crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes those hardships will end as a result of American intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s just the start of the justice we need to see,\u201d Mel\u00e9ndez said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n
Her homeland had reached a \u201cbreaking point\u201d due to forced displacements, repression, hunger and fear, she said. She called for international humanitarian support to help in Venezuela\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemoving an authoritarian system responsible for these crimes creates the possibility, not a guarantee, but a possibility, for recovery,\u201d she said. \u201cA future without criminal control over institutions is the minimum condition for rebuilding a country based on justice, rule of law, and democratic safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Ouster #Maduro #government #sparks #celebrations #among #Venezuelans #South #Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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